Some reflections on aid to fisheries in West Africa

Abstract

Concessionary aid to the fisheries sector of developing countries in West Africa (from Mauritania to the Congo) is presently running at around $18 million a year. This estimate, which includes both technical assistance and capital projects, is based on detailed information for 1983 (see Table 1) and a general review of more recent years. While this is not a large amount either in comparison with total aid flows or the value of the catch of the coastal countries (about $350.0 million), it is a substantial addition to the $40.0 million made available annually by local governments for the administration and development of their fisheries; it is these activities which aid largely supplements and thus with which it may legitimately be compared. If the substantial departmental appropriation in Nigeria is excluded (some $20.0 million in 1983), aid in the rest of the region would on average be some 50% of the total public sector funds available for development in the fisheries sector. Although it is not possible to quantify this precisely, the importance of aid would appear to have grown over the post-independence period. In the early 1970s annual disbursements comparable to those in Table 1 were of the order of $4.0 million and even allowing for a doubling of prices ’ there has clearly been a real increase in the flow of overseas assistance. This is to be expected, if not for more fundamental reasons than because of the increase in the number of interested agencies which have attracted national funds. In the early 1970s concessionary assistance was confined largely to the UNDP and the ex-colonial countries France and Britain; today there are almost 20 different agencies with an interest in assisting the growth and development of fisheries in the region. Apart from straightforward growth there has also been a change in the nature of the objectives. Projects in the early years had a very strong scientific basis. Of the projects which were either operational or completed in 1973, about 80% were concerned with resource surveys or stock assessment and a further 15% were concerned primarily with technology, both gear and processing. By contrast present-day projects have much more diffuse objectives, and if it is possible to identify any major emphasis it would be a predominant interest in artisanal fisheries and to a lesser extent in aquaculture. Notwithstanding the growing need for management and consequently for information on the many shared stocks of the region, expenditure on stock assessment is in real terms